The Steeple Times

Tag: films

  • A Monarch Carries On

    A Monarch Carries On

    The sale of the The Manor House, Stoke Poges

     

    In the blog that preceded “The Steeple Times,” Matthew Steeples took a look at The Manor House at Stoke Poges in March 2012. It’s still on the market at £13,500,000 and though the price has yet to be cut, there has been uproar about revelations that the former owners, South Buckinghamshire District Council, sold the freehold and a sculpture by John Deare for just £300,000. A link to the May 2012 “Bucks Free Press” article about this is included at the end of this article. What a Carry On!

     

    The Manor House, Park Road, Stoke Poges, Slough, Buckinghamshire, SL2 4PG
    An image of The Manor House sometime between 1910 and 1929

    Estate agents particulars are funny things. Normally gushing with nonsense such as “prestigious,” “luxurious” and “architect designed,” property agents rarely miss a trick when it comes to selling historical and personality related peculiarities.

     

    Sidney James as The Reverend Flasher AKA “Big Dick” Turpin with Barbara Windsor as Harriett in a scene filmed in The Great Hall at The Manor House, Stoke Poges for the film Carry on Dick
    The Great Hall at The Manor House today

    I was therefore somewhat perplexed that the brochure for The Manor House at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire didn’t contain reference to its appearance in the 1974 classic Carry on Dick.

     

    Agents Savills instead opted to gush about the house’s previous owners, who numbered Francis Hastings, second Earl of Huntingdon, Sir Edward Coke and Thomas Penn, son of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. The brochure also goes to the lengths of describing visitors who have included Queen Elizabeth I, Charles I and Sir Thomas Gray and points out that Sir Edwin Landseer used The Manor House as a studio whilst painting his most famous work, The Monarch of the Glen, in 1851. The filming of For Your Eyes Only and Bridget Jones’ Diary in the adjoining Stoke Park also get mention but Savills utterly neglect the starring role of the building as the home of the Reverend Flasher, played by Sid James, in Carry on Dick. Plainly “Big Dick” is not someone they wish this £13,500,000 house to be associated with.

     

    The Manor House is now a quarter of its original size as, on his return from America, Thomas Penn decided the house too dilapidated for his own occupation. He commissioned James Wyatt to build him the new mansion that is now Stoke Park Club in the 1790s and demolished the majority of The Manor House.

     

    Stoke Park as the backdrop to a golf match between James Bond (Sean Connery) and Auric Goldfinger (Gert Froebe) in For Your Eyes Only (1981). Oddjob (Toshiyuki Harold Sakata) caddies.

    In 1911, shortly after the Stoke Park golf course was laid out, further refurbishments were carried out that included the creation of the current Great Hall from the former kitchen, the introduction of bay windows and a new grand staircase.

     

    In 2010, Comer Homes acquired The Manor House and brought it into the 21st century. The 11,227 square foot main house and 7,966 square foot of guest and leisure accommodation were completely renovated and such things as multi-zoned, multi-sourced entertainment systems, CAT5 cabling and underfloor heating installed.

     

    The extremely neutral style of decoration is perhaps a reason that a buyer has yet to bite
    The uninspired theme continues in the kitchen
    Whilst this bedroom could be located, well, erm, just about anywhere

    Just 35 minutes drive from Mayfair and now looking somewhat like a hotel out of the Mr & Mrs Smith guide, The Manor House is an extremely manageable country home as it stands in just 10 acres of grounds. It will no doubt have huge appeal to a popstar, Euromillions winner or Russian oligarch. When viewing, however, they just better not mention “Big Dick” as no doubt soon the agent will have had “enough of it!”

     

    For more information on The Manor House, Park Road, Stoke Poges, Slough, Buckinghamshire, SL2 4PG contact Nick Ingle of Savills Beaconsfield on +44 (0) 1494 73152 or download a PDF brochure from: http://residentialsearch.savills.co.uk/property-detail/311852

     

    To see more images of The Manor House, Stoke Poges from when it was in Carry on Dick, go to: http://www.thewhippitinn.com/carry_on_film_locations/carry_on_dick

     

    View the trailer for Carry on Dick at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lk0NaWsbko

     

    To read the Bucks Free Press article about The Manor House and the £300,000 freehold sale, go to: http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/9701227._Why_was_historic_home_sold_for_so_little__/

     

  • Michael Collins: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Michael Collins: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks molecular cuisine guru and managing director of Bubble Food Michael Collins: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom.” What’s your guiding force?

    Passion and creativity.

                                                                                           

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “Never put all your eggs in one basket.”

     

    Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2012?

    Bad hair.

     

    Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

    My mum’s home cooking.

     

    What might you swap all your wealth for?

    More money.

     

    Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank.” What’s your view on the banking crisis?

    The bubble had to burst at some point. I’m lucky as sticking to my motto meant that it didn’t affect me too much.

     

    What phrase or word do you most loathe?

    There is not really a phrase or word I loathe but I hate it when people give excuses.

     

    In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home.” What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

    I support various good causes, both personally and through my company. I get very fed up with the street fundraisers with their clipboards who try to stop you every three paces to sign up to their charity.

     

    The judge in “Law Abiding Citizen” states: “I can pretty do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

    I’m terrible. I couldn’t live without my phone.

     

    If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

    My lovely Bubble team. We would have lots of fun and do some teambuilding at the same time.

     

    Bubble Food’s Michael Collins

    If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

    I would go to The Ivy and have their amazing chicken korma.

     

    What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

    11am: “gin and it” for elevenses.

     

    A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

    A martini. We do a great “Pink Peppercorn Martini” at Bubble and for Christmas our head mixologist has created a “Snowing Black Forest Martini” complete with white chocolate snow. It’s delicious.

     

    Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

    My own because they’re full of all my favourite people and Bubble does the food and drinks. As a result, the guests seem to always be happy.

     

    Who is the most positive person you know?

    Betty White of Golden Girls fame. I love her.

     

    What’s your most guilty pleasure?

    Bubble’s head chef makes the most divine dessert. It’s a chocolate bubble containing salt toffee mousse, pomegranate and popping candy. Hot yoghurt sauce is poured over the bubble and it kind of implodes. Amazing.  I’ve been told it’s very low in calories though.

     

    If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

    An eagle: It’d be serene and soaring high with prey in its talons.

     

    If you were a car, what marque would you be?

    A Lamborghini.

     

    Cilla Black presented “Surprise, Surprise.” Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

    Although I’ve been in the events and hospitality sector for over 15 years, I originally studied construction and trained as a chartered surveyor.

     

    What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

    A nude picture of myself from when I first came to live in London.

     

     

    Michael Collins is the managing director of Bubble Food, one of London’s leading food design and events companies. The company specialises in molecular cuisine and their clients number Helena Bonham-Carter, Bella Freud and Jemima Khan.

     

    For more information about Bubble Food telephone +44 (0) 20 7703 2653 or go to: http://www.bubblefood.com

  • Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken

    Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken

    She owns a controlling interest in the world’s third largest brewer and is married to the child star of Lawrence of Arabia, Michel de Carvalho. They live together in London with their five children, are said to be worth £5.5 billion but live “quite modestly.” Of meeting his wife, de Carvalho commented: “I met the girl of my dreams, complete with free beer. I didn’t realise then that marriage is not just about free beer.”

  • Picture of the Week: A map with a difference

    Picture of the Week: A map with a difference

    Matthew Steeples discovers a map of London with a difference

     

    On the 16th October, an actor named Adam Lilley Tweeted an image based on a simplified version of a map of the London Underground. The creator had adapted it so that the names of the stations supposedly are indicative of what they believe the area around each station is best summed up by. Plainly it amused as over 4,000 Retweeted it.

     

    A revised version of the London Underground map
    Adam Lilley’s revised London Underground Map has been Retweeted 4,136 times

    Knightsbridge is replaced by “posh shops” and South Kensington is all about “dinosaurs.” Westminster becomes “Big Ben” and Notting Hill Gate is simply “Hugh Grant.” Bethnal Green is replaced with “curry” and Leicester Square, “films.” Somewhere south of the river is simply “XXL” and out in Essex, another station is renamed “skinny jeans.” Irony is the order of the day.

     

    Stephen Walter’s “London Subterranea”
    The section of the map detailing the exploits of “the acid bath murderer”
    And the section all Sloane Rangers should examine more closely

    Altering maps in this manner is nothing new and an especially brilliant one I saw at Christie’s in Old Brompton Road in their 3rd September sale depicted the location of events and discoveries I’d never heard of. In Stephen Walter’s London Subterranea, for example:

     

    –       The basement of 79 Gloucester Road was the location of the discovery of an “acid bath murderer” who killed at least 6 and is suspected of 15 murders. According to the depiction, he killed someone named “McSwan ‘ere and poured the remains down a manhole, reducing his body to sludge.”

    –       Harvey Nichols is shown as a plague pit.

    –       Brompton Oratory is described as aa “MI6 agent meeting place and dead letter office.”

     

    Such maps provide a little light relief and for that reason we make Lilley’s image The Steeple Times picture of the week. We invite readers to submit their very own versions. We shall publish the best.

     

    View Adam Lilley’s website at: http://www.adamlilley.com Follow him on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/adamski1974

     

    Please send your versions to: [email protected]

     

     

  • Hawn's Housesitter

    The sale of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s Malibu beach house

     

    Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

    Goldie Hawn’s performance in the 1992 romantic comedy Housesitter with Steve Martin was described by the noted film critic Roger Ebert as “one of her best performances.” In the film, Martin’s character builds a dream home for himself and his girlfriend but is unable to bring himself to live in it after she refuses to marry him. Hawn’s character moves in to housesit the empty love nest and in turn the pair fall for one another.

    The glass wall of the rear of Hawn and Russell’s beachfront home at 30802 Broad Beach Road, Malibu, California, CA 90265
    The vast living area of the property
    The cinema room of the house
    The perfect bar for entertaining after a day on the beach
    One of the property’s four bedroom suites

    In the late 1980s, Hawn and her partner of some 30 years, fellow actor Kurt Russell, bought themselves a dream beach house at 30802 Broad Beach Road in Malibu, California. With direct frontage onto Broad Beach, which the Los Angeles Times describes as a “confusing mosaic of public and private sands” that “has shrunk into a narrow sliver of its former self” due to coastal erosion, the pair created a residence that has been decorated in a style described by some as “exotic” and “Buddhist themed” and by others as “late-1970s contemporary.”

     

    Here, alongside neighbours including Pierce Brosnan, Steven Spielberg, Danny DeVito and Dustin Hoffman, Hawn and Russell were able to enjoy summer vacations in a 4,195 square foot two-storey home that includes 4 bedrooms and “4.5 baths.” The property also includes vast open plan living areas, a wet bar, a number of balconies and a media room kitted out with a Crestron home entertainment system. In addition there is separate guest accommodation and a 3-car garage, as well as landscaped garden areas with direct beach access via a path through the adjoining sand dunes.

     

    Hawn and Russell, whose main residence is in Los Angeles, first put 30802 Broad Beach Road on the market in 2007 but it failed to sell. They subsequently sought $95,000 a month for it on the rental market and then $80,000 a month in 2010. In July 2011, the house was again put up for sale at $14,749,000 and now, after having failed to sell yet again, some $5,000,000 has been sliced from the price and it is available for $9,950,000.

     

    The garden of 30802 Broad Beach Road, Malibu
    The property enjoys direct access onto Broad Beach

    Hawn was once quoted as saying:

     

    “I noted that people are happy here in India. When I went back home, people had everything in the materialistic sense and were surrounded with abundance, but they were not happy.”

     

    I am sure she and her husband will be a hell of a lot happier when they finally manage to offload this white elephant. For a start, they’ll no longer need a housesitter to mind it.

     

    30802 Broad Beach Road, Malibu, California, CA 90265 is available through Kimberley Pfeiffer of Coldwell Banker. She can be contacted on +1 (310) 867 0033 or +1 (310) 383 3664.


    For more information, go to:     http://www.trulia.com/property/3096152315-30802-Broad-Beach-Rd-Malibu-CA-90265

     

    Follow Goldie Hawn on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/goldiehawn

  • Rowling on

    Rowling on

    J.K. Rowling sells the home where she first moved after the initial success of her “Harry Potter” series

     

    Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is a lady said to be worth some $1 billion. Her path from “rags to riches” is well documented but the announcement of the sale of the Edinburgh home she first bought after the initial success of the books gives an insight into how she is also financially shrewd when it comes to property investment.

     

    Joanne “Jo” Rowling OBE, FRSL, pen name J.K. Rowling

    Having paid £425,000 for a first floor flat in a 2-storey Victorian house at 1 Abbotsford Park in Edinburgh’s Merchiston neighbourhood, 2 miles from the city in 1999, Rowling bought the other half of the building in 2003 for £375,000. In turn, the property was converted back into an 8 bedroomed single family residence and became one of several residences the author lived in with her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, and their children.

    The front elevation of 1 Abbotsford Park
    Security at the house was ramped up as Harry Potter sales soared due to the volume of fans appearing outside the property

    As well as extensively refurbishing and extending the property, in a submission to Edinburgh Council in December 2003, in the names of Mr. and Mrs Murray, the couple sought permission to install five CCTV cameras inside mock lamps at 1 Abbotsford Park. Though a neighbor objected on the grounds of invasion of privacy, the application was approved.

     

    The house’s 35ft sitting-dining room
    J.K. Rowling’s kitchen features free standing units, a Lacanche
    range cooker and a mural of tiles that, from a distance, could even be a scene from a Harry Potter novel
    The garden of 1 Abbotsford Park

    J.K. Rowling also built a detached 656 square foot office complex in the grounds of the 3,240 square foot house during her occupation. Additionally, as well as a library, she fitted out a study where she wrote many of the series of books that have now sold more than 400 million copies.

     

    An external shot of the garden office said to have been used by Rowling’s staff
    An internal shot of the office building

    Though Rowling permanently moved into another Edinburgh home she purchased for £2 million in December 2009 last year, whoever purchases 1 Abbotsford Park will have other authors to call neighbours. Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith both live locally.

     

    Rettie and Co. seek £2,250,000 on behalf of Dr. Murray and J.K. Rowling. Even allowing for their extensive renovations, the author’s initial £800,000 investment appears to have certainly paid off if this price is achieved.

     

    For more information on 1 Abbotsford Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH10 5DX, contact James Whitson of Rettie & Co. at 11 Wemyss Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6DH or telephone: +44 (0) 131 624 9068. View full details including a PDF brochure at: http://www.rettie.co.uk/sales/EDI121294

     

    J.K. Rowling’s official website can be viewed at: http://www.jkrowling.com. Her first adult book, The Casual Vacancy, is published by Little Brown on 27th September 2012.

  • Leonid Rozhetskin

    Leonid Rozhetskin

    He co-founded City AM and was executive producer of the 2009 film Boogie Woogie. This Russian financier and lawyer led a closeted life and disappeared in March 2008. Elements of the Russian press suggest he’s living in California under the Federal Witness Protection Program but others argue that he was the victim of foul play at the hands of the KGB. A credit card belonging to Rozhetskin, whose favoured haunts numbered The Wolseley and Nobu, was found next to a body found in woods in Latvia in August 2012.

  • Benjamin McKenzie (born Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan)

    Benjamin McKenzie (born Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan)

    The nephew of Pulitzer-Prize winning playright Robert Schenkkan is best known for having played The O.C.’s Ryan Attwood, a troubled teenager and outcast who is given a second chance and a life of luxury in Newport, California by the rich Cohen family. One of his best lines in the series, which concluded in 2007, was: “You know what I like about rich kids? [punches another character] Nothing.” He’s since excelled as a rookie police officer in the NBC drama Southland and is most definitely one to watch.

  • Steven Berkoff

    Steven Berkoff

    Steven Berkoff is a titan of the stage and a might with a pen. He’s best known for playing the darkest of characters but in reality he’s charm personified. Berkoff beat Julie Burchill in a libel case in 1996 and finds it “flattering” to play evil characters. He lives on the river in a converted warehouse in Limehouse with his delightful partner, the Danish pianist Clara Fischer, and often sports the snazziest loafers in town.

  • Anouska Hempel (Lady Weinberg)

    Anouska Hempel (Lady Weinberg)

    The founder of the world’s first boutique hotel moved to London in 1962 with just £10 to her name. She’s acted with Anton Rodgers in Zodiac and was in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but it as a designer of global repute that she is best known. Married to Sir Mark Weinberg, the founder of St. James’s Place Wealth Management, Hempel was born on a boat sailing from Papua New Guinea to New Zealand. This society figure’s first hotel, Blakes, created in 1978, is the favourite of personalities such as Sharon Stone and Seal and still sets the barometer for style today.